Hunger Awakened

by Dee Carney

  “Easy,” he said softly.

  She glanced up at him, needing someplace to focus, a question poised on her lips. But the tension stretched across his features made her forget what she was about to say. “Bast?”

  A sense of dread filled her, because she recognized the expression of forced concentration. He was in pain again.

  “Don’t worry.” His brow unfurrowed. “It’s not the same.”

  “But something is wrong,” she replied quietly, knowing damn well the other men at her side could hear. It couldn’t be helped.

  “Wrong isn’t the right word.” They began to move forward as a single unit, squeezing in pairs through the doorway. “I just have this feeling.”

  “Heat?”

  “No. Not like that. It’s...I don’t know how to explain it. Like I’m being pulled almost. Weird.” At his sides, his hands went into fists, knuckles cracking with the movement. “Kind of like static electricity, but it’s zipping around my inside. I swear I feel two heartbeats. If I hold still long enough, my heart is doing double-time.”

  “It’s racing?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “One right after the other.”

  “Boss.” Drew edged closer to his side. “You know what that is, right? And even better, you know it’s not possible. At least, it shouldn’t be, unless there’s something you need to tell us.”

  “What’s not possible?” Alice asked. “I don’t understand.”

  “I did nothing wrong. Nothing. Not even in a drunken fit.” The confusion and outright anger on his face held Alice captivated. He looked like a man just given notice he’d been fired from a job of thirty years. Or maybe it was the expression of a teenager who’d been informed that in nine months, he’d be a father. To Alice he said, “There’s another vampire here.”

  Well, obviously. “Okay?”

  “I mean, one that’s connected to me.”

  “I still don’t understand. How’s he connected to you?”

  “That’s just it. I’m not sure how.”

  “Start from the beginning.” His gaze kept darting from her face to something behind her, his entire manner as close to frantic as she’d ever seen on the normally stoic man.

  His expression straightened. “I’ll explain it later. This isn’t the time.”

  She weaved her fingers with his, trying to grab his attention. “Don’t shut me out now.”

  He only shook his head. “It can’t be up for discussion this second, Alice. This...it’s wrong. I can’t say anything else about it now other than it’s wrong. It has to be.”

  But what was the matter? She got that he didn’t want the others to know he’d been sick, but right now they seemed to know more than she did. Something about being vampire. Something he wasn’t allowed to tell her—or did he flat-out just not want to tell her?

  Drew slanted a sympathetic glance her way, but when he turned to face forward, his expression straightening, she followed his example.

  A very lean man, with salt and pepper hair and a hawklike nose, made his way toward them. A woman in a pretty black dress hovered a few steps to his right side. A glass of something sparkly was gripped between her elegant, unadorned fingers. Before he’d stopped moving, coming to rest right before Drew, he held out his hand. Without hesitation or the slightest clumsiness, the woman deposited the glass. Almost as if this practiced move had been done thousands of times before.

  He should have looked out of place amid a sea of tuxedos and formal wear, but the brown pinstriped suit that would have seemed gauche on anyone else seemed determined to show off his sense of greater style. The manicured nails and flashy watch accentuated the picture perfectly.

  “Sebastian.” He spoke with confidence, but without airs. “This is a closed meeting. I believe your lovely companion would enjoy her dining experience elsewhere.”

  “Councilman Renner, I’d like to introduce you to Alice Bowman. She’s a genealogist...with a proposal.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” she murmured in response, not bothering to hold out a hand. She wasn’t sure he would have taken it.

  Shrewd brown eyes studied her in a head-to-toe sweep. “What would you plan on mapping, Ms. Bowman?”

  His directness almost made her forget herself. Alice shook off the disquiet and repeated the words she’d rehearsed with Sebastian not long ago. “Why, the Council, of course.”

  “She would offer herself as the Council’s historian, if the Council would agree to it,” Sebastian added.

  Councilman Renner pivoted on his heel while bringing the glass to his mouth for a delicate sip. “Hmm...yes. We’ll have to see about that. Why don’t you come in and tell us all about it.”

  Her heart pounded.

  Chapter Twenty

  Bast gritted his teeth, trying to stay focused on the conversation in front of him. No matter how he tried though, all he could do was continue to concentrate on the double-time thump thump knocking against his ribs.

  God, was it going to stop? First the illness without explanation, and now this unbreakable pull, tugging at him with a strength that almost made him shove everything else from his thoughts.

  Others had talked about the sensation, about the double heartbeat and its significance. It usually meant a link had been formed with another vampire. The link between sire and issue. Somehow, a vampire in the vicinity was physiologically attached to him. His father, perhaps? Maybe now that Bast needed him the most, he was somewhere close by.

  The thought churned some deep emotion in Bast, making him feel much younger than his years. Fucking great timing. Maybe it simply meant that all this time with Alice had him thinking about his father too much. No good would come of it.

  The double heartbeat meant nothing. He couldn’t allow it to mean anything.

  The men fanned out around Bast, Alice and Councilman Renner, allowing the three to stroll through the hallway leading to the dining area without hindrance and allowing him to focus. Bast was happy to move himself just behind Alice’s left, the way Councilman Renner’s ever-present assistant kept to his right.

  He needed to keep his attention on her right now. On the people of the Council.

  “So I understand,” Alice said, “that the Council is only a few hundred years old.”

  “I won’t bother to ask the source of your information,” Renner responded dryly.

  “Of course it’s true that I’m not one of you, but I think my skill set could prove useful to your group. Imagine, if you will, having the family lines of the members to draw upon to demonstrate the history of power occupying those seven seats. Don’t you think it would provide a message to those who still question its legitimacy?”

  Bast kept his face impassive, although he was seriously impressed with the start of her presentation. He’d only had to plant the half-baked idea in her mind and she’d crafted it until the idea enticed even him.

  He took the opportunity to study their surroundings when the conversation took a turn. Something about coats of arms and hiring a painter. Nothing he needed to know about. Renner seemed captivated by what Alice had to say, the man’s tension evaporating as the minutes passed.

  Bast wished he could say the same. As hard as he tried to not allow his mind to drift, a knot of muscle formed at the base of his skull, tugging wickedly at his head. The pull being created by something—or someone—near him kept growing stronger, as much as he tried to ignore it. The double thump pounded with greater insistence. He felt compelled t
o face his feet toward one of the side rooms and just follow. Way to get dead.

  He couldn’t help himself from looking. Trying to see past shadows and darkness and perhaps get a glimpse of someone within.

  Gray stepped into his sightline, obscuring any chance of catching a glimpse of the magnet. “Under control?” he asked softly.

  For a second Bast hesitated, almost ready to shake his head ‘no.’ Damn it, he was sick of this shit. Tired of feeling like he’d been dragged behind a pickup. Worn down to his bones. Maybe he needed to confide in Gray, if only to make sure the Council vampires remained protected. If he wasn’t at the top of his game, Bast just couldn’t be effective at doing his job.

  Then Alice laughed.

  A coiled spring of tension unfurled deep inside Bast, reacting solely to the sound of joy coming from the woman next to him. He released a slow breath, pure habit, letting ease wash over him. The annoying tug still wrapped tight around his center, but knowing that she stood next to him, ready to claim and save him, made it that much more bearable.

  Before turning to see what had tickled her, he did another scan of the room. Familiar faces greeted him, the remaining members of the Council gathered in groups of two or three. Other vampires surrounded them, some secluded in their own little cliques, while vampire staff served food. Keeping the crisp white uniforms of the latter group that amazing gleam of white must have been hell on the laundry bill, but that wasn’t his problem. He tagged one of the servers as a little too flamboyant before his gaze lifted and then collided into eerily black eyes.

  The man with the boxer’s jaw and classic Grecian nose was a legend among those vampires who fought the good fight. Corin Gerulaitis, former gladiator and current vampire exterminator, stood over six feet tall and looked every bit the death dealer. Clothing wouldn’t have hidden his dark aura and apparently he’d thought so too, choosing to dress in gray slacks, a black T-shirt and a duster. The latter item caught Bast’s attention the most. He skimmed its surface, looking for telltale bulges, and found them. Stakes. Designed for vampire execution. He probably had a few other items hidden beneath the duster, but just knowing they were in the same room as the Council made Bast’s blood run cold.

  “Our celebrities,” Gray said almost beneath his breath, having caught on to the threat in the room.

  “Where’s the wife? Rose or something...” Bast whispered back. He glanced at Alice, who seemed deep in thought while still continuing an animated conversation with Renner.

  Bast was curious to see the woman who’d somehow managed to make the executioner not only disregard his order to kill her, but ended up mated to him instead. According to rumor, she’d defied the Council mandate just by being alive, until the couple had convinced—maybe coerced—the Council to rescind the command. It was something never before done. Not done again since.

  “Jasmine,” Gray corrected. “Over there.”

  He followed Gray’s direction and when he finally spotted her, the force of the double heartbeat almost punched through his chest. Bast released an anguished sound, unable to bite back the surprise and recognition. She stared back at him, blood draining from her face in a rush. Jasmine was petite, the roundness of her very pregnant belly almost comical. But Bast saw the way she swayed when she looked at him, and thankfully she grasped her husband’s arm for support.

  “Oh God...shit.” Bast felt a tremor hurtle through his veins and every muscle, the shock of seeing his very first blood issue keeping him rooted to the spot. Physiology didn’t lie. “What. The. Hell.”

  The executioner pulled his wife close to his body, his mouth moving frantically near her ear. Despite acute hearing, at this distance Bast had no idea what they were going on about. No doubt, it had loads to do with him. The connection between them.

  “Excuse us, Councilman,” Bast said to Renner. Later, he’d do damage control on interrupting the man mid-sentence, but for now, he grabbed Alice’s hand and hastened her toward Jasmine Gerulaitis.

  The woman he’d sired. Somehow. She was his vampire progeny. His.

  “What’s going on?” Alice sounded breathless beside him, but he couldn’t stop looking at the other woman. The consequences of having an unauthorized bloodborne were huge. Astronomical.

  Bast’s mind whirled with questions and more questions. How the fuck had he sired someone? How had she survived? Transition was a miserable experience to live through without a sire’s care. Jesus Christ. This had to be the reason she’d been ordered for execution.

  The insistent tugging he’d been feeling all evening. The feeling of unrest and unease, which had been with him since they’d arrived, had been trying to tell him something. His bloodborne. His. An impossibility, an unfathomable feat, stood in the same room with him, ready to be claimed.

  “Sebastian?” Alice’s concern stabbed him.

  “The pregnant woman,” he said between gritted teeth. “She’s mine.” He felt her hesitate, her grip on his hand slipping free. “Not like that, Alice...there’s only you like that. The woman...I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but she is my creation.”

  He struggled with his next words because they made no sense. He wasn’t full-born. Turning someone was supposed to be impossible. The word kept tumbling over and over in his thoughts.

  Just fucking impossible.

  “She’s...I made her a vampire,” he finally forced out. There was an audible gasp beside him, echoing his sentiments almost perfectly. “This is bad, princess. Really bad. I have to find out more.”

  They didn’t speak again until they’d woven through numerous bodies. Most were indulging in alcoholic beverages, while others dipped crunchy bits of fried calamari in marinara or chewed on rolled eggplant stuffed with cheese. He’d planned on allowing everyone to enjoy the restaurant’s offerings, but the night hadn’t even begun and it had swung a left down a one-way street, hurtling in the wrong damned direction.

  The only thing on his mind right now was this woman. His bloodborne.

  His disciplined men kept Bast and Alice in the center of a circle of protection, while still giving them some freedom to move through the others. Gray stayed the closest, and for that Bast was grateful. He’d need sound advice in this matter.

  “You’re the man who was shot that night,” Jasmine Gerulaitis said when they were close enough. “You’re the reason I’m here.”

  Bast studied her face, trying to recall it from memory. He’d been shot a dozen times or more, but try though he might, he couldn’t place her. What history did they share?

  Her husband, a hulking brute of a man, stepped forward and put his body in between Bast and his wife’s. Corin’s arm was hidden inside his duster, the look in his eyes a mix of rage and contempt. “You have no idea what you did, and it’s the first of three reasons why you’re not dead by me right now.”

  Bast kept his gaze trained on his tucked hand, looking for any sudden movement, while his instincts went on screaming alert. “I don’t give a fuck who you think are, Council executioner or not. Don’t threaten me. I promise that you’re not good enough to take me down, so I suggest you put that hand where I can see it.” He didn’t bother to mention the five men who surrounded them.

  Corin tensed. “Bring it.”

  * * *

  Wide-eyed, Alice whipped her attention from Sebastian to the man and back again. Time out and wait a minute. What was happening here, and should she duck and cover?

  “Corin, sweethear
t?” Alice had almost forgotten about the woman standing just behind the man threatening Sebastian. She looked adorable dressed in a sleeveless purple dress, with some sort of drape over one shoulder. Her skin gave off the kind of glow only pregnant women could ever achieve. “Honey, I’ve gotta pee. You’re going to have to hold off on any killings until I get back, ‘kay?”

  The change in Corin’s face was immediate and dramatic. Everything about his look softened, love shining from him with such loudness it almost seemed a private moment between the two. “As you wish,” he murmured. He looked to Sebastian. “If you would allow me to finish what I’d started to say... This woman and our child are the other two reasons I would never harm you. Thank you.”

  “But I don’t understand. How did this happen?” Sebastian asked. “You have no idea...”

  Corin laughed. It looked both unusual and intensely interesting on him. “Let me escort Jasmine to the restroom and when I return, you and I will have a long talk. And don’t worry, unless you decide to tell others about this, her origin stays with us.”

  “Oh, good Lord.” Jasmine rolled her eyes. “I think I can handle going to the bathroom by myself. Been doing it that way for a long time.”

  “Not until I check it out, mellita.” His sharp gaze went to Alice. She shrank internally from the scrutiny. “Too many whack jobs getting too close to you. Both vampire and human.”

  Sebastian tightened his hold on her hand. “Alice is with me.”

  “And you trust her?” Corin asked.

  “With my life.” He sounded so grave, Alice could have gone wobbly kneed from his declaration. Something was shifting between them. Something that would have to be explored later. “Is there a problem?”

  “According to some fanatics, my wife has no sire. They have made our lives very interesting with their twisted devotion. They worship her as some type of goddess, her mysterious turning proof that a new age of vampirism is upon is. Some of them have been a little too enthusiastic, wanting to drink from her or her from them. And once we were no longer able to hide her pregnancy, they’ve become even more zealous. I don’t dare leave her side.”